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1990–2003

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Human Genome News, July 1990; 2(2)

NAS Computing and Molecular Biology Meeting

Computational molecular biology may receive an influx of fresh talent, based on the initial reaction of participants at a recent Computer Science and Technology Board (CSTB) workshop. "Computing and Molecular Biology: Mapping and Interpreting Biological Information" was held April 30-May 1 at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in Washington, D.C.

Sponsored by CSTB, the workshop highlighted the important and challenging information analysis problems that exist in molecular biology. In keeping with workshop objectives, about two-thirds of the participants were computer scientists, half of whom were in early stages of their research careers. While many came with only a cursory knowledge of molecular biology, they were uniformly enthusiastic about applying their expertise to this field. Molecular biologists and representatives from funding agencies contributed to an informative dialogue.

The workshop was cochaired by Robert Langridge (University of California at San Francisco) and Eric Lander (Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research). Major areas addressed included sequence analysis, information storage and retrieval, and protein structure prediction. Specific challenges presented to the participants included:

  • finding genes within a DNA sequence;
  • deducing structure and function from protein sequence;
  • reconstructing evolutionary trees from sequence probability;
  • processing experimental data; and
  • facilitating the storage, access, and update of distributed data.

To continue the cross-disciplinary dialogue begun at the workshop, short-term courses in molecular biology and computer science, problem-specific workshops, standard datasets, joint research projects, and a mailing list of relevant researchers are being considered. A summary of the workshop will be available later this year.


For more information on NAS meeting, contact:

  • Damian Saccocio
    National Research Council
    CSTB/HA 560
    2101 Constitution Avenue NW
    Washington DC, 20418.

Reported by Damian Saccocio, Computer Science and Technology Board, NRC

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The electronic form of the newsletter may be cited in the following style:
Human Genome Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Human Genome News (v2n2).

Human Genome Project 1990–2003

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international 13-year effort, 1990 to 2003. Primary goals were to discover the complete set of human genes and make them accessible for further biological study, and determine the complete sequence of DNA bases in the human genome. See Timeline for more HGP history.

Human Genome News

Published from 1989 until 2002, this newsletter facilitated HGP communication, helped prevent duplication of research effort, and informed persons interested in genome research.